Family planning not for Muslims, says Turkey's president Erdogan

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Mr Erdogan accompanied by his wife Emine Erdogan, greets supporters during a rally to mark the 563rd anniversary of the conquest of the city by Ottoman Turks, in Istanbul on SundayCredit:
Murad Sezer /Reuters

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Family planning and contraception are not for Muslim families, the Turkish president has said, in his latest comments promoting population growth that angered women's activists.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday it was the responsibility of mothers to ensure the continued growth of Turkey's population, which has expanded at a rate of around 1.3 percent in the last few years.

"I will say it clearly... We need to increase the number of our descendants," he said in a speech in Istanbul.

"People talk about birth control, about family planning. No Muslim family can understand and accept that!

"As God and as the great prophet said, we will go this way. And in this respect the first duty belongs to mothers."

Mr Erdogan and his wife Emine have two sons and two daughters. Earlier this month, the president attended the high-profile marriage of his younger daughter Sumeyye to defence industrialist Selcuk Bayraktar.

In a speech marking International Women's Day this year, he said he believed that "a woman is above all else a mother".

In 2014, he described birth control as a "treason" which risked causing a whole generation to "dry up".

And he has famously urged mothers to have four children, saying: "one (child) means loneliness, two means rivalry, three means balance and four means abundance."

According to the statistics office, Turkey's population rose to 78.741 million last year. The population in 2000 was less than 68 million.

Meanwhile, the composition of Turkey's new cabinet under Binali Yildirim, the recently chosen prime minister, announced last week also annoyed activists with just one female minister.

Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, who wears the Islamic headscarf, heads the family and social policy ministry, a post which has always gone to a woman.

According to economists, one of the key problems for the Turkish economy is the failure to integrate women into the workforce.

But the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) which Mr Erdogan co-founded angrily rejects allegations of sexism and says it has done more than any other Turkish government to encourage women to work.